We Were Never All in this Together, Were We?
The gaslighting of our teachers
It’s almost the beginning of the school year in my part of the country. Teachers are back at their schools for pre-service week. They will greet their colleagues, attend meetings, learn what has and hasn’t changed, and set up their classrooms.
I wrote an article almost two years ago titled, Are We Really All in This Together? About supporting teachers during pandemic learning for the 2020–2021 school year. The last two years in education have been truly eye-opening. Teachers learned where they stood with their parents, school systems, and students.
Somewhere along the way, we failed each other. In a time where we needed to pull together and be kind and extend grace to our neighbors, we forgot that we weren’t the only ones struggling. As we donned our facemasks, demanded kids return to the classrooms before vaccines were distributed, and worked from home, we forgot that our personal decisions affected others. The pandemic showed us the very worst of ourselves.
Teachers are undervalued
We pushed teachers into resigning and retiring. We told them we didn’t take their health seriously. We demanded that they “stop being lazy” and teach our children. Once lauded for pivoting quickly to online learning as…
